


Show Yourself

by ratherastory



Series: Ferret!'verse [3]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-02
Updated: 2012-05-02
Packaged: 2017-11-09 13:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/455733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratherastory/pseuds/ratherastory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Five-0 crew are trapped, Danny is forced to reveal his secret in order to get them out of their predicament.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Show Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> Neurotic Author's Note #1: This was written as a pinch-hit for a pinch-hit for an unspecified charity thing for [](http://zortified.livejournal.com/profile)[**zortified**](http://zortified.livejournal.com/), who had the misfortune of never actually getting a completed charity fic in the past. The request was for a fic in which Danny was forced to reveal his true nature to the rest of the team.  
>  Neurotic Author's Note #2: Um, you may notice a distinct lack of plot, here. To which I reply: plot? Who needs a plot? Look, Danny is a ferret! *cough*

"This has to be your fault somehow," Danny says, wincing in pain as he tries to reach far enough through the bars of his cell to reach the clean handkerchief that Kono is holding out for him. The words aren't directed at her, though.

"Come on, Danny," Steve protests. "There is no way that this can be my fault. I mean, a room full of knockout gas? You're saying I should have anticipated that? Or that whoever attacked us would lock us in separate cells in—wherever this is, so that we can't reach each other?"

"You keep grenades in my car 'in case of emergency,'" Danny points out, pulling back his hands in order to more effectively make air quotes with his fingers. "Forgive me for assuming you have all the various bases covered, at least where crazy, psychotic criminals are concerned. Ow!" he winces again as he makes an abortive attempt to reach back toward Kono. "You know what? I think that's not going to work. Thanks anyway," he tells her, and she sits back down on the floor of her cell, crossing her ankles primly in front of her, chin propped up in her hands.

"Steve's right," Chin pipes up from the cell across from Steve's. "There's no way we could have planned for this. We were going for an awards ceremony, we had no reason to think there was any kind of threat at all. You're being a little unfair, Danny."

"That's rich," Danny slides back along the floor to his cell until he can lean back against the bars, eyes closing momentarily.

"You okay, Danno?"

Steve tries to keep the worry out of his voice, but he's not sure he succeeds. Danny was the last one affected by the gas, since he'd been closest to the door and last into the room, and he obviously put up a fight before their attackers took him down, but it looks like he's paying for it now. There's a worrying amount of blood sheeting down the side of his face from a cut over what looks like a really painful lump over his left eye, and judging by the way he's moving he's got at least a cracked rib or two.

"Nothing an ice pack and a couple of beers wouldn't fix," Danny mutters. "So, Rambo, what's the plan?"

"For the last time, Danny, Rambo was in the army. The _army_. It's not the same!"

Chin is looking around speculatively, doing what Steve has already done twice, which is looking for an escape route. "Well, there's the locked door and an air vent, and that's pretty much it. I might be able to crack the door code, but I'd have to have access to the panel, and for that we'd have to get out of the cells."

"Not even Kono can get through that air vent," Steve agrees, eyeing it balefully. Stupid narrow air vents. They don't build ducts like they used to, and it's a damned shame.

"Especially not in this dress," Kono adds scornfully, plucking at the burgundy material of her cocktail dress, which shows off a very attractive amount of leg. "You suppose Jenna has any idea where we went?" she asks hopefully, then slumps a little when Steve shakes his head.

"So we're stuck waiting for the bad guy to come monologue at us, reveal his nefarious plan, and then conveniently point out the one weakness of the Death Star?" Danny breaks in. "That's a pretty flimsy plan, Steve."

"You got a better idea?" Steve snaps, annoyed in spite of himself. Danny's right, he should have seen this coming, should have prepared better, he thinks, looking gloomily at the lock on his cell door. He has nothing with which to even try picking the lock, which is just great. Their kidnappers took everything that might have been of use to him under the circumstances.

"Hey, quit that! Only I get to criticize you," Danny snaps his fingers to get Steve's attention again. "It's my God-given right as your long-suffering partner. You don't get to take that away from me. And, as a matter of fact, I might have a plan, yes."

"Am I going to like it?" He runs his hands along the bars, testing for weaknesses, and isn't really surprised when he doesn't find any.

"Probably not. One of us has to get out of here, right? Get to the other side of that door?"

Steve really doesn't like where this is heading. "Danno..."

"I can fit. In the air vent."

"What?" Chin and Kono look perplexed, but Steve knows exactly what he means.

"Danny, no. No way, it's too dangerous."

If Danny shifts, then he'll definitely be able to fit in the vent. Steve has seen him squish into the most improbably small places while in ferret form, but that was in the safety of his own home, and not while they were being held captive by an unknown enemy. If Danny goes out now, he'll be almost entirely defenseless. Not to mention that, up until this moment, he's kept the fact that he can turn into a ferret at will a secret from pretty much everybody. This will be letting the cat—or actually the ferret—right out of the bag, on top of which, Danny's injured, and God only knows what shifting now might do to him.

"I really like that better than the other plan," Danny points out, "which is just sitting here and waiting for someone to come in and maybe just shoot us."

"That's unlikely, don't you think?" Chin says. "Why go to all this trouble first?" He looks over at Danny. "Also, no offense, _brah_ , but I don't see how you think you'll fit in that vent when even Kono wouldn't make it."

Danny pushes himself onto his hands and knees, and Steve feels another pang of worry when he sees Danny wince as the movement jars his ribs. "If you're implying that your scarily talented and terrifying cousin is in need of a few extra sandwiches, I can't say I disagree with you. That being said, I have a trick or two left up my sleeve..."

Steve has seen Danny transform more than a hundred times now. So many times that he's actually lost count, but it still amazes him every single time. He's never quite been able to wrap his mind around the shift, can only see what looks to him like a shimmer or a ripple in the air until Danny is just _gone_ , his clothes in a puddle on the floor, leaving behind only a sleek white ferret in his place.

"Oh my God," Kono breathes. "Danny?"

Of course, Danny can't actually talk when he's like this, but he squeezes easily through the bars of his cell, then into hers, and noses at her knee in a friendly fashion. She reaches down to run her fingers lightly over his fur, and he makes an odd sound that Steve learned a while back means that he's happy. A moment later Danny is scampering across the floor, jumping up onto a chair and scrambling to perch on its back in order to launch himself at the air vent near the ceiling. He almost misses, hind legs scrabbling furiously at the wall trying to find purchase until he finally gets a foothold and squeezes right into the vent and disappears from view.

"You want to explain that?" Chin looks to Steve, who shrugs.

"Not really my place. If we get out of this in one piece, then I'll let Danny do the explaining."

"Fair enough."

The wait is agonizing. Steve can tell Chin and Kono are brimming with questions, but they're wisely keeping a lid on it all until this is all over. About thirty seconds in Steve gets up and starts pacing, measuring out his cell obsessively because he can't think of anything better to do. Danny's alone out there, and it's not that Steve doesn't care about the rest of the team—he does, more than he'll ever admit—it's just that it's _Danny_ , and somehow he always manages to worry that much more about him.

Somehow, Steve is a little insulted when he hears nothing at all right before the light on the electric key pad flashes from red to green and the door opens, revealing Danny, clad only in a pair of pants that clearly belonged to someone taller and maybe a bit narrower in the waist and a grey t-shirt that stretches across his chest in a way that's making Steve think all the wrong things, given the circumstances. Danny waves an electronic key card with a small but triumphant smirk, then limps into the room, still in his bare feet. In his other hand he's got a lanyard with what looks like about three dozen keys on a ring, and he immediately begins trying them in the locks on the cell doors in quick succession.

"You okay, Danny?"

"The good news is that very few people ever expect a ferret to change into a five foot seven naked guy," Danny says, neatly evading the question. He looks worse than before, his face grey with pain under the blood that's still caked on his skin, and Steve can't help but notice that his hands are shaking a little as they unlock his cell door. Danny hands him the keys. "You, uh, you good to get the rest of the doors?" he asks quietly. "I'm gonna sit for a minute, if it's all the same to you."

"Sure thing," Steve liberates the keys and tries not to worry even more when Danny leans against the bars of the cell and slowly lets himself slide to a sitting position on the floor, head cradled in his hands. "You see if there was a radio or a phone or anything in there?"

"Cell phone," Danny waves a hand vaguely. "Already called for back-up, they're five minutes out. Can you believe we're still downtown? Fuckin' amateurs. Only one guard, too."

"We can't count on that," Steve unlocks the other two cells, then unlocks Danny's too because if he doesn't rescue Danny's good dress clothes from the floor he knows he'll never hear the end of it. "We should try to secure the premises."

"I took the liberty of disarming the guy and using his own zip-ties to keep him that way. He's got a gun and a taser," Danny volunteers, as Chin moves over to help him.

Kono's already heading into the next room, moving carefully in case the guard isn't on his own after all. Steve glances towards Danny, reluctant to leave him behind when he's clearly not doing well, but Chin's got that situation in hand, and tactically the right decision is for him to provide backup to Kono, not check on the man he loves, no matter how tempting. Danny makes the decision for him a few seconds later, leaning heavily on Chin in order to get to his feet.

"Okay, I'm good. Let's go."

Chin meets Steve's gaze, nods once to let him know he's got things under control, and props Danny up against him. "Right behind you, Steve."

For an attack that was so well-coordinated that it took them all out without them so much as noticing anything was amiss before they were unconscious, it falls apart with remarkable ease. It takes Steve and Kono exactly three minutes to find the remaining guards and subdue them, and by the time back-up has arrived from HPD they've even found the middle-man responsible for coordinating the kidnapping and Kono is sitting on his head while Steve—in deference to Danny's sensibilities—is patiently explaining his rights to him.

Danny bitches about having to go to the hospital the whole way there, even when Steve sits with him in the ambulance. Maybe because Steve sits with him in the ambulance, it's hard to tell with him sometimes. He submits with bad grace to having his head wound cleaned and stitched, accepts an ice pack and pain killers for his ribs, and keeps bitching until long after Steve lets him check out and drives them both back to his place, where Danny's been staying ever since his apartment complex burned down. They haven't really discussed any of it—whether this is going to be permanent, whether they're going to tell Chin and Kono about them, whether they're going to tell Chin and Kono about _Danny_ —but it almost feels like the decision's been made for them now.

Not altogether surprisingly, Chin and Kono are waiting for them outside Steve's house, sitting in the wicker chairs on the lanai. Danny's half-asleep in the car, but he rallies a bit when he sees them. Steve can feel him tense up, and reaches over to squeeze his shoulder.

"You don't suppose they'd buy that we were all experiencing a mass hallucination?" Danny jokes weakly, and Steve smiles and shakes his head. "Yeah, didn't think so. Okay," he takes a deep breath, and steps up to the lanai. "Uh, hey guys."

To Steve's surprise, Kono darts forward and throws both arms around Danny in a fierce hug. "Oh, Danny."

Danny looks a bit bemused at that, but he brings his arms up to hug her back. "I'm fine, sweetheart, you don't have to worry. Just a bump."

Kono pulls back, eyes a little bright. "I'm sorry you thought you had to keep it a secret for so long, that's all."

"Uh..."

Chin shrugs, almost invisible in the shadows. "We got a couple of cousins who are selkies. It's an island thing."

Danny clears his throat and glances around, visibly uncomfortable. "Uh, maybe we could move this conversation inside?"

"Sure."

Steve produces three beers from the fridge and pointedly doesn't give one to Danny, ignoring his baleful glare. "Yeah, try again when you're not concussed. I brought you one of Grace's ginger ales, it'll settle your stomach. Here," he hands Danny an ice pack that was already beginning to melt under his arm.

Danny takes the ginger ale and the ice pack, presses the latter gingerly to his head, and turns to face the music. "So, uh... how much explaining do I need to do?"

"You're not a selkie." Chin says. It's not a question.

"No. Same idea, different animal. Therianthrope, technically," Danny fusses a bit with the ice pack. "The selkies around here pretty much keep to themselves, though."

"Unlike you?" Kono says gently, and Danny flushes a bit.

"Yeah, well. You get used to not flapping your mouth about the fact you can change into a ferret. It gets you and everyone you love into trouble, usually. I can't put that on my family. You should know that, if your cousins are selkies. Secrecy is how we survive, you know?"

Steve's beer is empty, and he's not entirely sure how that happened. He figures it was somewhere in-between finding out that he's apparently the only person on the whole island who didn't know about shape shifters before his partner transformed into a ferret in their bed. He gets himself a second beer, sits back down, and lets the flow of conversation wash over him. He already knows a lot of what Danny's telling Chin and Kono now: how therianthropy runs in his family, how that it tends to manifest at puberty, that it affects both men and women (all the selkies Chin and Kono know are women), and that he's pretty sure Grace inherited the trait from him. Soon, though, he can see Danny flagging in spite of the ice and pain killers, and he interrupts gently.

"Okay, time's up. Everything else can wait until Danny's had some sleep."

"Of course," Kono looks guilt-stricken, even when Danny gives her arm a reassuring squeeze. "Sorry. You rest up, okay? We'll um, if you want, we'll check in tomorrow?"

"Sure, sounds good."

Danny has let his head fall back against the sofa, eyes at half-mast, the day's events finally taking their toll. By the time Steve has shown their teammates to the door and come back he's asleep, curled up in a tiny white ball of fur on the sofa, tail wrapped around his nose, his clothes in a crumpled pile on the sofa beneath him. Steve bites his lip to keep from smiling, then leans over in order to stroke Danny's back.

"One of the perks of this?" he says softly. "I'm never going to put out my back carrying you up the stairs."

Danny makes a contended chuckling noise and noses at Steve's fingers before allowing himself to be picked up. He nestles against Steve's chest and doesn't protest being manhandled at all as Steve climbs the stairs and fishes out the ferret-sized sleeping bag that Danny likes to nap in when Steve isn't around. He's not all that surprised when Danny ignores it in favour of curling up under his chin, but he keeps it on the bed anyway, knowing that Danny'll want it tomorrow when Steve goes out for his morning swim. He's too wired to sleep even after a couple of beers, but he doesn't want to go too far from Danny, either. He settles against his pillows but doesn't turn out the light just yet, picking up the book he's been trying to finish for days now, wraps his free hand carefully around the ferret's midriff so he can feel the tiny ribcage rise and fall beneath his palm, and finally feels himself beginning to relax.

"G'night, Danno."


End file.
